FROM DI OBSERVER…… PNP TING

Those that say that individuals are not capable of changing anything are only looking for excuses. — Vaclav Havel
Werewolf plots, clandestine schemes and demonisation of Jamaica Labour Party leaders are political strategies used to the point of nausea by the People’s National Party (PNP). Of course, PNP election campaign tactics are no more than antiquated political brooches handed to it by the British, our former colonisers. The fact that they are still highly prized by Norman Manley’s party suggests acute stunting.
Students of African history, in particular, will recall the so-called Mau Mau Menace in Kenya. Prior to Kenya’s political independence on December 12, 1963, she had the largest population of white settlers in East Africa. The British concluded that Kenya was, therefore, ‘white man’s land’, and would best be occupied almost exclusively by white settlers.
The term Mau Mau was introduced to the lexicon of the Kenyan peoples in the early 1950s. It was a derogatory and phantom creation of the British who were obsessed with their own propaganda and paranoia of imperialist superiority. Mau Mau was blamed for every rape, every murder, every drought, every social upheaval, and every political failing.
What was the core objective of this smear campaign? White settlers believed they had a God-given right to rule. The Kenya Africa Union (KAU), whose members were mostly Kikuyu [large ethnic group in Kenya] were branded as ruthless terrorists — to undermine their claim for equality.
How did the Kenyan peoples eventually overcome the British propaganda of Mau Mau? A majority repudiated it and formed a unified body which situated Kenyan Independence and interests as urgent priorities.
The lessons of history are not hostage to geographical boundaries. The PNP is fuelled and possessed by a self-serving propaganda that “Jamaica is PNP country”. Life chairman of the PNP, Robert Pickersgill, told us as much when he said: “We believe it is best for the PNP to form the Government; therefore, anything that will lead us or causes us to be in power is best for the PNP and best for the country.”
Michael Manley’s cruel experiment with Democratic Socialism, spawned from a flawed doctrine of Fabian Socialism that was hatched in Britain, crashed the Jamaican economy in the 1970s. Jamaica’s political climate has been bedevilled by a cult-like application of Pickersgill’s formula and or similar manoeuvrings.
Jamaica has suffered dearly as a consequence. “In real terms, Jamaicans are no richer today than they were in the early 1970s. And most of the island’s enduring problems, like its public finances, are home-made.” (
The Economist, July 2012)
Recall that Michael Manley told Parliament in 1976 that “new and unique types of violence” [Hansard] had been imported into Jamaica and, therefore, the need for a state of emergency. This was declared on June 19, 1976, and lasted for a year.
Recall also that Mr Justice Kenneth Smith, then chief justice of Jamaica, headed a commission of enquiry into this most sordid piece of Jamaica’s history. The findings of the Smith Commission revealed that the state of emergency’s calling was predicated upon the facilitation of political opportunism and not bona fide concerns about national security. The Smith Commission also uncovered that the heads of both intelligence agencies of government — the Special Branch of the police force and the Military Intelligence Unit (MIU) of the Jamaica Defence Force — never advised Manley of any potential threat to national security during Carifesta and, indeed, Deputy Commissioner Curtis Griffiths, head of the Special Branch, testified to the commission that he knew nothing about the intention to declare a state of emergency; he read of it in the press, although he was the chief intelligence officer of government. Captain Carl Marsh, in charge of the MIU, also gave devastating testimony. He advised that there was no need for a state of emergency. Those who are interested in the truth can consult the archives of the Institute of Jamaica and University of the West Indies, Mona.
Thousands are still hurting from the pain and economic devastation they faced under the governance of P J Patterson and Dr Omar Davies, one of the most disappointing finance ministers since 1962. During the Patterson years the world economy boomed. On average, the vast majority of countries in the Caribbean and Latin America grew by an average of three per cent to five per cent yearly; except Jamaica. While most countries in the region breathed economic oxygen, our business sector was drowning on carbon monoxide. We are yet to recover.
The major companies below capsized when P J Patterson and Dr Omar Davies were at the wheel: (This is an abbreviated list) Mutual Life (a company that operated locally for over 100 years), Goodyear Tyre Company, West Indies Glass, Homelectrix, Workers’ Bank, Raymar’s Furniture, Charley’s Windsor House, Thermo Plastics, Berec Batteries, Century National Bank, Crown Eagle Insurance, Crown Eagle Insurance Commercial Bank, Island Life Insurance Company, American Life Insurance Company, Eagle Merchant Bank, and Ecotrends, Times Store, Things Jamaican (the location of which was turned into a prison by the PNP). Thousands of Jamaicans lost their jobs. Some 45,000 small- and medium-sized businesses folded during the scorched-earth economic epoch of Patterson and Davies.
The PNP and economic growth are seemingly antithetical. In 1971, the Jamaican economy grew by almost 12 per cent in that one single year; equivalent to the cumulative growth under Dr Omar Davies’ entire 14 years as minister of finance between 1993 and 2007.
Why has the PNP been so disastrous at governance? Simply, it’s a party that concentrates on and is preoccupied with creating bread and circuses. The phrase bread and circuses is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion, distraction, or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace.
Fast-forward to 2015/16. By now it must be obvious to all but political neophytes that the campaign of the PNP is on its knees. The house of the Leader of the Opposition Andew Holness was their trump card. The PNP’s house envy trump card has been relegated to a trash card by Holness’s point-by-point disclosure and rubbishing of empty claims.
Those who study the political tea leaves decoded the political gymnastics of the PNP from last year. “True to form, the PNP has built a campaign on political scaffolding constructed with rotten scrap metal taken from someone’s abandoned garage. A construction outfit who cuts corners and delivers sixes for nines is not only untrustworthy, but equally as dangerous as the eight out of every 10 block makers that the Jamaica Bureau of Standards says have sent inferior products to the market.” (
Sunday Observer, December 13, 2015)
On July 19, 2015, Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips, fresh from his political junket in Addis Ababa, while speaking in York Town, Clarendon, placed Comrades in the ‘stand behind your blocks’ election mode. Since then the PNP has worked overtime to brand the election campaign as one of ‘ray ray’, standpipe brawls, fluff, and amateurish pyrotechnic stunts. It has failed dismally. Why?
The PNP does not have control of new media and the conduits that direct real-time information flow and content consumption. Secondly, the PNP has not learned from a tragic mistake of Michael Manley. It is impossible for people, irrespective of political loyalties, to tame their physiological needs indefinitely. Slinger Francisco, known worldwide as the ‘Mighty Sparrow’, undisputed King of Calypso and lyrical genius, sang: “You can’t love without money. You can’t make love pon hungry belly.” Additionally, this Administration’s credibility has flatlined. As country people put it, you have to take what they say with a pound of salt; “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson.
There is untold suffering in Jamaica. Recall, a few weeks ago, informal surveys by this newspaper revealed that hundreds in the prime minister’s and adjoining constituencies were living on $300 per day. With a population of 2.7 million, “200,000 are undernourished, according to statistics released by the United Nations”. (
The Gleaner, December 28, 2016)
Twenty per cent of Jamaicans are living below the poverty line, says the Statistical Institute of Jamaica. Some who don’t know what hunger is, who cannot fathom living from pay cheque to pay cheque, who would not understand how a family of four survives on $7,000 dollars weekly, who cannot appreciate that one of the greatest injustices of our society is that we have thousands who cannot maximise their innate talents, tell us that these are our best days. What glorified contempt!
Bob Marley warned, “Don’t let them fool ya or even try to school ya! Oh, no! We’ve got a mind of our own. So go to hell if what you’re thinking is not right!”
The smokescreens of the PNP are exposed. Those who say devaluation is sweeter than ‘sorup’ [syrup], live in a cocoon distant from the realities of ordinary Jamaicans. Last time I checked, our dollar was $121.87 to US$1. Our currency has been devalued by 42 per cent in four years. The actual value of the Jamaican dollar is US$0.008. Devaluation has been devastating to the lives of fixed-income Jamaicans.
Some would have us believe that single-digit inflation — a direct consequence of record-low world oil prices — means that the prices of imported products in our supermarkets, one-window cornershops, and wholesales are slaves to their propaganda. Jamaica imports 92 per cent of the items on a typical supermarket shelf. Here are a few examples of how devaluation is hurting: one kg of cornmeal, that cost $110.50 in 2011, now costs $191.00. Chicken back, which was $80.00 in 2011, is now $198.30. A 2 lb hardough bread that cost $180.00 in 2011, now costs $305.00. The math is simple! “The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it,” said Flannery O’Connor, American writer and essayist.
While the country deteriorates, a moribund Administration twiddles its thumbs and titivates itself with the glare of fool’s gold, the crumbs of underachievement, and mediocre political trinkets. The PNP does not understand the core function of government: “After order and liberty, economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government,” said Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States. Since the start of the year, 117 Jamaicans have been slaughtered. Last year 1,207 Jamaicans were murdered — the highest in five years. (
The Associated Press, January 7, 2016)
“Five hundred of our best science and mathematics teachers migrated last year.” (
RJR News, January 30, 2016). University and college graduates are being told that their best prospect of work is in a call centre. Are we children of lesser gods? Jamaica’s youth unemployment, at 34 per cent, is one of the highest in the world. Does this Administration understand the Spanish Proverb, “The busy man is troubled with but one devil: the idle man by a thousand”?
The most credible world index of a country’s development tells us Jamaica is headed in the wrong direction. The 2015/16 Global Competitiveness Index ranks our institutions among some of the worst in the world. “The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The report remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.” (GCI, 2015/16)
Four years ago Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller pledged, inter alia: “The mandate which Jamaicans gave the People’s National Party on December 29 is a call to action. It is a signal from our people that we, the Government, must earn their trust. It also gives us the opportunity to ease the burdens and the pressures of increasing poverty, joblessness, and a deteriorating standard of living.” (excerpt from Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s inaugural speech, January 5, 2012).
“To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.” — René Descartes.
The time for half-measures is over. The PNP has been in power 23 of the last 27 years. “Jamaica’s growth has averaged less than one per cent for over 20 years.” (
Forbes, December 2015) A critical mass is ready to exhale the PNP.
Recall, I wrote some months ago, “Whether the People’s National Party (PNP) president and the country’s prime minister calls the general and/or local government election in November, as some pundits predict and sections of the private sector are demanding; February 2016, as my sources insist; anytime on or before December 29, 2016; or enter into a realm that no other political party has gone before — those additional three months allowed by the Jamaican Constitution — I sense that the PNP is headed for a crushing defeat similar to October 30, 1980.” (